Airbus says will obey WTO ruling on aircraft subsidies

PARIS, May 22 (Reuters) - Airbus plans to set out measures on Tuesday that will bring it into line with a World Trade Organization ruling on subsidies for its A350 and A380 jets, a senior lawyer said.

The move comes after the United States won the right to seek sanctions against European Union goods following a partial victory in its 14-year legal battle against European government support for Airbus at the World Trade Organization.

“We will be announcing this morning a complete package of measures to fully comply with last week’s ruling, putting us basically at a point where we have nothing left to answer and no sanctions possible,” Karl Hennessee, senior vice president and head of litigation at Airbus, told BBC radio’s Today programme.

The WTO found last week that Europe had maintained some illegal subsidies to Airbus despite earlier claims to have withdrawn them, prompting a threat by the U.S. to impose sanctions. The EU has said it expects to win a parallel case against U.S. subsidies for Boeing later this year. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)